Light Rail Transit is one of the transport investments to be ready for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022. Our task was to design a fast tram (LRT) station in the center of the emerging satellite district (Lusail), located north of Doha. It is a communication junction that connects 3 tram lines, a high-speed route in a two-level tunnel, multi-storey underground parking lots, underground passages to office buildings and a representative public square.
Lusail Plaza LRT underground transit station in Qatar
Our task was to design a transit station (three platforms) with an extensive utility program typical for this kind of public fucility. The full functional program of the underground station had to be developed within a reinforced concrete shell designed by another designer, which turned out to be impossible (e.g. due to the inability to meet fire protection requirements) and resulted in agreeing the necessary changes in the executive documentation issued in the meantime for implementation.
Our designers encountered many extraordinary tasks, such as: Adapting the program of the station originally planned on the surface to an underground location. Proposing a fire protection strategy for the station, taking into account its operation in conjunction with other buildings designed by different designers subject to different investors. An attempt to combine aesthetically public spaces subject to different entities, and therefore different standards in the field of finishing materials or visual information.
conceptual design: 2015
building permit design: 2016
detailed design: 2017
general contractor: QDVC
client: Cundall
project’s coordinator: Dar Al-Handasah, Foster + Partners,
